Two Great Sessions
General Session:
Active music classes in infancy enhance musical, communicative
and social development: Results from a new study.
Researchers at McMaster University have discovered that possible benefits of musical training can begin even before your child can walk or talk.
For 6 months,groups of babies and their parents participated in one of two types of weekly music instruction. Now the class sessions are over and the results are in. We found fascinating differences between the groups. My talk will explain how this study was conducted and explore the musical and non-musical benefits of what is the first study of its kind to show the specific benefits of formal musical experience.
These research findings will be published this spring by the scientific journals Developmental Science and Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Breakout:
Music and Infants: The effects of enculturation and training on development
What effect does enculturation have on musical development? What role does formal musical experience play? What are early developing universal constraints? Drawing on recent research,this session will explore the various elements that together affect musical development in infants and young children. This talk will be of interest to all early childhood educators interested in understanding more about brain development and music.
Bio:
Flutist David Gerry maintains a busy schedule as a teacher,performer and clinician. David has a PhD in music cognition from the School of Psychology,Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University with Dr. Laurel Trainor. McMaster University. He holds a MMus and BMus.Perf. from the Faculty of Music,University of Toronto and an ARCT diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music,which also awarded him the gold medal in flute. David is also a graduate of the Talent Education Institute in Japan,where he studied with Shinichi Suzuki and Toshio Takahashi. He is assistant professor of music education at the School of the Arts,McMaster University.
The 2011-12 season will find him lecturing,playing and teaching in Argentina,Australia,Japan and England,as well as in numerous cities across North America. David is also on the faculty at Mohawk College and the Great Lakes Flute Centre. For many years he was the music specialist at Trail Ridge Montessori School in Grimsby,Ontario. He is a Registered Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas and the European Suzuki Association. With Laurel Trainor,David is the recipient of a 2008 award from the Grammy Foundation for excellence in the scientific study of music.